Saturday 16 February 2013

Catwalk Reports from The LFW Daily Today's reports by Nicola Copping, editor in chief of my-wardrobe.com. CLEMENTS RIBEIRO
You know you’re in for a treat when a designer declares his love for creating tension, as did Inacio Ribeiro of the design duo Clements Ribeiro, after a show replete with seemingly incongruous elements combined in mind- boggling harmony. So streetwear influences, such as baggy wool skater shorts, joined softer folkloric knits and beautiful gem-encrusted collars. Bold floral prom dresses, peplums and pencil skirts – in a print inspired by the designers’ recent trip to Brazil – appeared alongside a swathe of glimmering gold and bronze French brocade on skinny trousers and sweatshirts, while every outfit came with flat and adorably punky winklepickers. But it was the glee with which the pair reintroduced a trademark leitmotif – “We got really fixed on the idea of using mini kilts!” said an excitable Ribeiro backstage – that characterised the playfulness of the blend. Streetmeets South America; lace meets metallic brocade; punk meets glittering embellishment – Clements Ribeiro had it all in the mix.
JULIEN MACDONALD
What do you get when you combine a Renaissance palazzo, The Saturdays, gown after sequin-encrusted gown and a Viva Las Vegas soundtrack? It can only be the return of the perma-tanned, viper-tongued Britain & Ireland’s Next Top Model judge Julien Macdonald to the London Fashion Week schedule. Of course, he was true to his inimitable form, enthusing about a recent trip to Las Vegas, “People partied night and day. My girl is the party girl, but the grunge-deluxe version. It’s five o’clock in the morning, she’s had a cocktail, her make-up is smudged, but she doesn’t care – she’s young and she’s having fun.” And so she sparkled on the catwalk, in a skin-tight, thigh- grazing silver mini-dress; she sashayed in a multitude of metallic fringing; she wore lattice-effect cocktailwear exposing strips of suntanned skin. Then she emerged in Ziggy Stardust jumpsuits laced with black embellishment, and finally a nude leotard with red tassels and sequins in all the right places. It’s like he’s never been away.

MARQUES'ALMEIDA
Question: what does a Nineties grunge girl who refuses to don anything but denim wear to the ball? Marques’Almeida had the answer as they forced themselves out of their street-style comfort zone and into the terrifying world of traditional evening wear. It sounded a challenge too far for the subversive label, celebrated for its slash-and-fray denim. But as the Newgen-sponsored pair took the key ballgown motifs of below-the-waist volume, jewel tones, flowing trains and raw silk and moulded them into their style – bulbous oversized palazzo pants; jeans worn long, ripped and trailing with mini trains over white trainers (“I remember wearing boot-cut trousers that were so long they trailed on the floor,” said Marta Marques); and provocatively slashed double denim, with a luxe smattering of sheepskin and dyed pony-hair – they created quite the modernist take on glamour. “We wanted to stick with our girl, but cater for all the different events she has to go to,” said Paulo Almeida. Now our grungy Cinderella really can go to the ball.

MOSCHINO CHEAP AND CHIC
Pink and punk may not be the most natural-sounding bedfellows but, according to Moschino Cheap and Chic, they’re next season’s match made in fashion heaven. By taking the fundamentals of the punk era – think spiky studs, angry graffiti, rock-star jackets and safety pins – and adding a more saccharine touch in the form of sharp frills on the hemlines of skimpy bright pink silk shifts, rhinestones on soft knits, leopardskin swing coats and a playful bass guitar-shaped cross-body bag, they cast a new, frothier (and undoubtedly post-rehab) vision of punk icons Sid and Nancy. While there were standout elements – the expertly cut leopardskin tuxedo suit and the studded skinny black trousers (a nice new take on studs), to name two – casting punk in an unapologetically pretty light seemed to sap most of the movement’s anti-establishment allure. Mainstream was what punk rebelled against. Goodness knows what Sid and Nancy would have made of bright pink.